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Music

American Odyssey- The world building of Lana del Rey’s music

"The past decade of Lana del Rey’s music has ventured  from the deserts and neon-lights of Las Vegas to the streets of New York, Hollywood, and eventually rural California."

‘Spectacular throughout’: OUO at the Sheldonian- review

"The Sheldonian Theatre was treated on Saturday of 4th week to a display by some of the University’s best musical talent."

Five Songs for the Fifth Week Blues

"I believe that music makes a lot of things in life better. Fifth week at Oxford is no exception."

Forget Her Not: Rediscovering Women in Music- Week 1

At fifteen, I was fully and completely obsessed with the Californian soul/alternative R&B/jazz/funk band...

Grammys 2024: Reflection of Profitability or Recognition of Artistry?

The 2024 Grammys were everything they should be: glamorous, monumental, and of course, controversial. Taylor...

Review: “Haram” by Armand Hammer

"Bright and blinking synths atop a deep and detailed sax lead and jazzy and triumphant drums." Oliver Hogg dives into Armand Hammer's seventh and latest project, "Haram".

Review: “Beauty in Death” by Chase Atlantic

"The energy is less mosh pit, headbanging, and more vulnerable. There’s talk of heartache and relationships crumbling" Poppy Atkinson Gibson finds a different side to the Australian trio, Chase Atlantic, in their latest release, "Beauty in Death".

Album Review: “Great Spans of Muddy Time”//William Doyle

""Great Spans of Muddy Time" finds Doyle in new realms of abstraction, with a record that can feel formless, sometimes almost messy." Frank Milligan ruminates on William Doyle's latest release.

Self-growth, Sin Miedo: The Rise of Kali Uchis

"The potentially risky decision to produce a Spanish album to a predominantly English-speaking fanbase reflects Uchis’ consistent commitment to be authentic to herself." Ellie-Jai Williams explores Uchis’s brave Spanish new album, "Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios)."

“We’ve come a long long way together” Liverpool’s ‘First Dance’

""I want to go again. It was just so so fun. It was such a nice atmosphere there.” The feeling of happy excitement of people heading out for their first night out post-lockdown definitely gave a boost of energy." Iona Neill discusses the recent trial rave at Bramley-Moore dock in Merseyside.

Review: Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over The Country Club

"She walks this peculiar line of being both stronger and more self-assured but within that, being more unapologetically delicate and sentimental." J Daniels explores Lana’s 7th album, in all its assuredness, delicacy and sentiment.

Review: Ben Howard’s Collections From The Whiteout

"Howard has somehow transformed the usually significant divide between the ominous and the amusing into a fine line." J Daniels takes a look into folk singer Ben Howard’s latest album.

Review: Lil Nas X’s ‘MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)’

"In his adolescence, the Church told Montero that being gay would send him straight to Hell – so the singer reckoned, why not get into his thigh-high stilettos and slide down there on his own terms?" Beth Ranasinghe dives deep into Lil Nas X's recent single "MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)".

Pop-Classical Fusion: Alexander Joseph’s Für Elise Reimagined

"It is prefaced: “What if Beethoven’s Für Elise… Had been written by Ludovico Einaudi?”... ‘Reimagining’ Beethoven in the style of Einaudi would entail a translation of Beethoven’s ‘classical’ harmonies into the more accessible language of modern film/popular music, potentially downsizing the role of melody and musical form in favour of communicating a more homogeneous ‘background’ sound." Yundi Li discusses the role TikTok and other new media play in changing dialogues of genre fusion.

Review: ‘Justice’ by Justin Bieber – A New Era or Familiar Failings?

"Production is not the greatest sin ‘Holy’ commits. Indeed, I actually really like the gospel piano that kicks the song off, and Justin’s opening verse (“I know a lot about sinners/guess I won’t be a saint”) and pre-chorus (“the way you hold me… feels so holy”), while nothing special, definitely fit and set the mood. Yet, this is immediately ruined by the lyric “Oh God/Running to the altar like a track-star”, which, accompanied by the muddy-too-modern pop bass farting through the timeless instrumentation preceding, wrecks the song beyond all recovery." Raman Handa reviews 'Justice', the latest offering from Justin Bieber.

Intermedial connections: Reimagining music in literature

"One of my favourite parts of Chinua Achebe’s masterpiece, Things Fall Apart, is a ferociously intense public wrestling scene. It buzzes with an ever-moving pulse, choreographed by the beating of drums. They rise with the intensity of the fighting, and older men 'remembered the days when they wrestled to its intoxicating rhythm.'" Jimmy Brewer explores how Kerouac, Proust and Achebe capture the experience of live music in their works.

‘Blanched and pureed’: what does globalisation do to world music?

"Is the hit single really a triumph of Korean music and the result of successful diversification of the globalised music industry? Or is it an omen of homogenised world music, blanched and pureed under Anglophone influence?" Coral Kim discusses whether BTS disprove the model of "l'exception française".

Music for springtime

"Start your day off with this dance track and you can’t go wrong." Flora Dyson picks out some selections to help keep you company during the final stretch of restrictions and drive you into the spring and summer months.

Review: Weezer’s “OK Human”

"Ultimately, the album is about the human experience: the joys and monotonies; the passions and anxieties; the connection and solitude". Karan Chandra reviews Weezer's latest record, OK Human.

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